Generally the Advanced Search is used instead of the Simple Search to further narrow your results to very specific documents or items. Advanced Searching can also be performed from the Simple Search line using unique field identifiers. Boolean searching (AND, OR, NOT) is supported.

To Perform an Advanced Search:

Click the Advanced Search button at the top of the page.

The Advanced Search page defaults to the most recent container (workspace, filter, etc.) as the scope.

To clear any previous search criteria, use the Clear fields link at the top (1). Or, use CTRL-SHFT – C as a keyboard shortcut to clear the previous search criteria.

A user's most recent search will be available from the Recent Searches list under the Simple Search bar.

Select a page layout (2). This determines the defined display format that will be used on the search results page. The search fields also change to display only relevant fields. For example, selecting Documents will display the Name field, whereas the Email layout will display Subject.

Select the scope of the search by selecting one or more cabinets (3). Use Ctrl + Click to select more than one cabinet. For faster search times, limit your search to one cabinet at a time. Searching multiple cabinets at a time may result in slower searches.

The fields on the advanced search page can also be customized (4). See below for more information.

Click Show More Options to display more fields. You can collapse it by clicking Hide More Options (5).

You can choose the sort order of the search results by selecting Relevance, Last Modified Date, or Name. You can also change the sort order after the search results are displayed.

Type the search criteria for the desired fields then click Search to perform your search.

Customizing the Advanced Search page

You can drag and drop the fields into whatever order you wish. Select a layout for each of the page layout options - Documents, Email, and All. The field at the top will be the active cursor field, meaning the cursor will default to that field.

Select a place for the More Options button:

Sorting

The Advanced Search provides an option at the bottom of the search page to sort the search results. The sort default is set to sort by Modified date. You can change it to sort by Relevance or by Name by checking the box below the sort options.

NOTE: Sort by Relevance is only available when using the Everything/full-text search field.

Additionally, you can sort the search results after executing a search by using the sort options available at the top of the search result list:

Search Fields

Attribute (Profile) Lookup

You can search for clients or matters by the key (number) or description (name). Type-ahead suggestions will be displayed:

You can also click on the lookup box for an attribute to search it, such as Matter, as shown below, then you will see the next dialog. Using Tab on your keyboard, you can move to the next available field on the Advanced Search page. This will skip over the lookup dialog, but you can use F2 to open the dialog.

When you first come into the dialog, it displays ONLY the values that you have recently used creating new profiles. So to see the complete list from the beginning, you can click the All tab or you can enter a value and search. This will then display the first 500 records. You can enter a value in the box at the top of the dialog to locate other values.

If you are using a Code and a Description (which we recommend), then you can select the specific radio button you want to use for locating the value. For instance, if you select Description and enter a C in the box at the top, you will find those values that start with the letter C. If you select Key, then you will be able to search for the matter number. You can set either key or description to be your default.

Created By and Modified By fields

Clicking the "Me" link in the Created By and Last Modified By fields will insert the current user's account name (defined under Settings > Personal Information). Note, if the account name changed, this option will only search those documents that match the current account name. For example, if a user named Michael uploads a document it will be stamped with "Created By Michael." If Michael changes his account name to Mike and clicks the "Me" link, it will insert "Mike" into the search box. So, the search will not find his earlier document because it has "Michael" associated with it.

Creation dates are indexed based on US Eastern Time Zone (New York City).

Document ID

You can search for multiple Document IDs to return more than one result. NetDocuments allows entry of multiple document numbers separated by spaces, commas, semicolons, “OR”, or any other separator. If you use the Document ID as the search criteria, any other search fields you've entered are void since only one document can be returned with that ID.

ShareSpaces

You can find documents that are in a ShareSpace by searching the ShareSpace name. ShareSpaces that do not contain documents cannot be searched. When a ShareSpace is created, it should contain at least one document in order to locate it, or it should be filed in a folder to be found through navigation.

Incomplete Profiles

By checking the “Incomplete profile” checkbox, users can find those documents that have at least one empty profile field that is set to “prompt if empty”. For example, if any documents do not have an assigned Document Type, and the Document Type attribute is a field that users are prompted to complete, then those documents will appear in the search.

File Extension

You can search for documents by file extension (docx, xlsx, etc.) including NetDocuments Items such as folders and Saved Searches.

On the Advanced Search page, select one or more options in the File Extension field:

Documents Only will search all file types, except emails, Saved Searches, and folders.

Email Only will narrow the search criteria to include only msg and eml file types.

Folders Only will return only NetDocuments Folders (ndfld file extension).

Under Other... are commonly used file extensions. Select one or more application file extensions.

You can enter an Application file extension from the sample list below, or any other valid file extension to refine your search based on a file extension. Your result will contain only documents for the extension selected. You can search for multiple file extensions all at once.

Below are examples of items or file types you can search by file extension. Although hundreds of file types exist, for illustration purposes only a few are listed as common application file extensions.

Common Application File Extensions

Application

Extension

Saved Search

ndsq

Folder

ndfld

Word Document (97-2003)

doc

Word Document (2007+)

docx

Excel Document (97-2003)

xls

Excel Document (2007+)

xlsx

PowerPoint (97-2003)

ppt

PowerPoint (2007+)

pptx

Microsoft Outlook Message

msg

Email Message

eml

WordPerfect Document

wpd

Web link

url

Text Document

txt

Rich Text Format

rtf

Adobe Acrobat or Reader

pdf

JPEG Interchange Format

jpg, jpeg

Tagged Image File Format

tiff, tiff

Graphics File

bmp

Wave Audio File

wav

WinZip File

zip

Audio Visual File

avi

NOTE: In order to prevent potential malicious activity with the service the following file types cannot be imported into NetDocuments: exe, com, bat, js, vbs, pif, cmd, dll, ocx, and pwl.